Category: General Interest

Submitted By: davisturner01@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Land clearing available. Junk removal ,brush hogging, felling

Submitted By: helidoni@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

Thanks to the secret gardener who has been beautifying my yard for several years. The red tulips this year are splendid – and the jewel red glads are coming up yet again. You know who you are – but I don’t. Thank you so much!

Submitted By: rkinor@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Recent Manzanita City Councils have a history of finding creative ways to use Water Fund revenue to pay for questionable activities or projects. The Warrenton overhead allocation model and its $191,000 transfer to the General Fund is the latest example that the current Council has discovered to continue this tradition.

In FY 2019 – 2020, the City Council made a direct transfer of $113,675 from the Water Operating Fund to the City Hall Expansion Fund. No explanation of why this was justified, but no one was asking these questions then so it just happened. The following Budget year, the same amount was included again in the Budget to be transferred to the City Hall Expansion Fund. Thankfully, John Kunkel an experienced City Manager who was serving as our interim at the time and had inherited that year’s Budget advised the Council that he would not be making that transfer as there was no justification for it.

In FY 2020 – 2021, the City cut timber from the Alder Creek watershed and received $500,000 in timber sales. This was the first timber cut since 1995 when all of that approximately $380,000 sale went to construct the blue water reservoir.

You would think that some portion of this recent $500,000 sale from watershed property would again find its way into the water construction fund to help pay for the millions of dollars of current needed water system improvements. Unfortunately, all $500,000 was put into the City Hall Expansion Fund once again and has been spent to pay for consultants and the loan to pay for the Underhill property.

In all of those Budget Committee conversations about the Warrenton model certainly someone should have posed the question that since we aren’t required to make these overhead allocation transfers, wouldn’t it be a better policy at this time to use this $191,000 for needed water construction projects? Other than the Mayor, the answer in essence was no, City Hall consultants, Underhill property purchase loan payments and possible future debt payments on construction of a new City Hall come first.

And please stop suggesting that since the Warrenton audit hasn’t said anything negative about their overhead transfer charges, that somehow justifies the adoption of their model. This misrepresentation of the purpose of a municipal audit to convey to citizens that an auditor has some role in recommending or otherwise approving a particular City’s adoption of any overhead allocation methodology is troubling.

Why does our Water Fund seem to be the source of so much interest by our Councils to fund a new City Hall? 1930’s bank robber Willie Sutton provides some insight into that question. When asked why he robbed banks, Willie replied “because that is where the money is”.

Once that $191,000 gets transferred from the Water Fund to the General Fund, there is no internal accounting by City staff to insure that those funds get spent to pay for all of the examples of City Hall staff support activities that were recently given to justify these transfers. Once transferred, it can then be used for any expense that the City chooses to pay for out of the General Fund including debt payments on any new loans to build a City Hall.

So when you hear this Council tell you that they simply had no choice but to adopt the Warrenton overhead allocation model and take $191,000 of Water Fund revenues out of next year’s Budget now under development in addition to the $213,000 that will be transferred from the current Budget for staff overhead costs, remind them that they indeed had a choice to keep more money available for construction of projects to improve the reliability and safety of our water system. They said no thanks, we may soon have a new construction loan to make payments on in addition to the Underhill loan payments and our City Hall consultants are expecting their checks.

The purpose of this letter is to remind our elected officials that sound policy decisions need to balance what can be done with what should be done to best serve the interests of the citizens that elected you. As citizens listen to more discussions on pending water rate increases and the costs of those needed water system projects, how many citizens think it would it would be better policy to keep the $400,000 of overhead allocation transfers between this year’s Budget and next year’s Budget now under development for needed projects rather than send it to the General Fund for City Hall staff expenses?

Randy Kugler

Submitted By: babbles@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

I am writing to express strong agreement with Lloyd Lindley’s post on yesterday’s Tillamook County Pioneer.

If you haven’t read it, please do so! The proposed new & expanded health center will be a boon to our present and burgeoning population.

I am also writing to make sure that all of you understand something wonderful about the Rinehart Clinic, now re-named the Nehalem Bay Health Center & Pharmacy.

The Rinehart Clinic has a sliding scale payment schedule. NO ONE IS TURNED AWAY FOR INABILITY TO PAY. I personally know of a young mother with very young children who was able to see a doctor at the Rinehart Clinic for $5-10.

THIS IS STILL TRUE TODAY.

AND, THIS SLIDING SCALE PAYMENT SCHEDULE WILL STILL BE IN PLACE IN OUR NEW AND EXPANDED HEALTH CARE CENTER.

I find this amazingly astounding. Does anyone know of any other rural health clinic that understands that EVERY ONE should have access to health care?

Please join me, and Lloyd Lindley, and many others, in voting YES for the Health District bond measure.

om peace namaste

lucy brook
nehalem resident
oregon voter

Submitted By: lloydlindleyasla@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Letter: VOTE YES for the Nehalem Bay Health District Bond Measure

I am asking you to take the long view and VOTE YES for the NBHD Bond Measure. Our North Tillamook County region has demonstrated the foresight and long view for health and safety needs of our residents, visitors and future generations. We have a robust Community Center where every young person can learn to swim, residents can take exercise classes and workout, and a state-of-the-art fire and rescue station including water rescue. Our existing healthcare facilities are woefully behind. This bond addresses our healthcare needs.

The NBHD campus is nearing its 75th anniversary. The campus is the largest employer in North Tillamook County and is striving to increase family wage jobs and improve the work environment. However, the Rinehart Hospital, originally built in 1953 and the clinic built in 1982 have out lived their usefulness for health services delivery. They are undersized to house modern equipment, and attract qualified professionals, and meet the needs of our growing community.

Over the next 40 years, Nehalem, Manzanita and Wheeler are projected to see the greatest population growth in Tillamook County. Plans are being laid for new workforce housing to meet existing and future employment demands of our business community. As these two factors converge the need for healthcare delivery increases.

Your YES VOTE will help provide:

– Construction of a modern, state-of-the-art Health Center and Pharmacy that will bring additional services to the community that currently do not exist – cardiology, dental, pediatrics, etc. This will directly improve health care delivery for seniors, families and kids.

– Renovation and modernization of the Nehalem Valley Care Center, the only skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility on the coast between Astoria and Newport. We live in a community with a growing senior population. With the closure of two assisted living facilities last year, the Care Center becomes the corner stone for senior care and rehabilitation in our region.

– Site preparation that can lead to a workforce housing development that will begin to address the housing needs of particularly health care and other essential workers. About 80 people are employed in health care in north county and many struggle to find decent, affordable housing.

-The existing clinic building can be repurposed for the food bank, offices, conference rooms, and emergency response needs. Nothing is wasted. The need for community support and emergency services is greater than the space available.

I truly believe your yes vote for the NBHD Bond Measure is a vote for a long-term investment in the community, and a new era of greater employment opportunities, better local health and senior care and a better future for our region.

Now is the time to begin. Please VOTE YES for advanced local healthcare and services.

Lloyd D. Lindley II
Volunteer NBHD Budget Committee
Landscape Architect, FASLA emeritus

Submitted By: bbq@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

More than 50 conservation and community organizations have signed a letter urging the Oregon Legislature to reject House Bill 3382. The letter was delivered on Monday, April 10.
HB 3382, introduced at the behest of the Oregon Public Ports Association, would eliminate land use review of dredging and development proposals in the state’s five deepwater ports: Coos Bay, Newport, Astoria, St. Helens, and Portland. It would eviscerate land use protections for key estuaries, among the coast’s most critical and productive habitat areas.
Organizations from throughout the state, not just the coast, signed onto the letter, because the bill has statewide implications. The specific goal of the legislation is to enable development in estuaries without being subjected to land use and other laws. However, this could set a broader precedent for special interests attempting to avoid careful environmental review of their projects by going to the legislature and asking for a change in the rules. This could threaten not just estuaries, but any resource area targeted by developers.
“This bill isn’t just about estuaries, important as it is to protect them,” says Phillip Johnson, Conservation Director of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, one of those signing the letter. “Our land use planning laws are there to make sure we weigh proposed development against ecological and social values. If this bill passes, it could lead to constant efforts to undermine the land use planning system that has helped to preserve the best of Oregon for 50 years.”
The dozens of organizations opposing the bill, both statewide and local, argue that it is inappropriate for the legislature to preemptively alter land use laws for the convenience of a special interest. Any changes to land use and other environmental regulations should be the product of careful review and public engagement, not hastily passed legislation that rips out one element of land use rules without consideration of the effect on the entire system. And without full land use review, development could proceed without knowledge of its potential impacts.
“Estuaries like Coos Bay possess a wide range of resources, and provide many ecological functions,” says Jan Hodder, a Coos Bay resident and emeritus faculty member at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston. “Estuaries are essential habitat for many species, including those depended on by the fishing and aquaculture industries. They are valued for recreation and tourism. They improve water quality, buffer storms, and store carbon, helping us address climate change. All these values need to be taken into account when development in estuaries is proposed. That won’t happen if HB 3382 passes.”
The bill’s passage could also undermine efforts to protect fish and wildlife and vital habitats like eelgrass beds and mudflats. “Our long effort to get Oregon’s Coastal Coho delisted depends on an intact land use planning system,” says Joe Liebezeit, Interim Statewide Conservation Director at Portland Audubon, another organization that signed onto the letter. “Weakening these regulations will undermine that effort. Estuaries are also essential for many other species, including green sturgeon, herring, and tens of thousands of migratory birds including species of conservation concern like the Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover and Western Sandpiper.”
Oregon’s land use planning laws (including Statewide Goal 16, which protects estuaries) are implemented by local governments through their comprehensive plans. In Coos Bay, the Estuary Management Plan shared by Coos County and the cities of Coos Bay and North Bend is currently in the midst of a revision process, which includes local citizen input. A similar Estuary Management Plan update is taking place for Yaquina Bay, shared by Lincoln County and the cities of Newport and Toledo. These detailed, community-based plans for estuary resources would be stripped of much of their meaning by HB 3382, violating the local role that has been part of the land use planning system from its inception.
HB 3382 is currently in the legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation. The signers of the letter urge Oregonians to contact their legislators and demand that the bill stop there.

For more information, contact Phillip Johnson, (503)
phillip@oregonshores.org. 754-9303, or Joe Liebezeit, (503) 329-6026,

Submitted By: babbles@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

Hello all,

Mary Leverette is running for the Tillamook County Transportation District. Having read her campaign letter, I thought it both intelligent and convincing and I have decided to vote for her. In case you missed it, I am including it at the end of my message.

I am impressed that Mary knows and understands both the future possibilities and the challenges that the Transportation District faces. I am impressed that she addresses in a very positive manner the success of the Transportation district and what she hopes to achieve for its future. I am impressed that she has taken the time to learn the needs of riders of The Wave, to understand what still could be enhanced and improved. Mary is ready to take the time and do the work to achieve an even better future for the Transportation District.

At the end of Ms. Leverette’s statement, you can read her credentials, which in my mind show capability to do the work she describes. I like that she describes herself as “organized, positive and practical.”

Please join me in voting for Mary Leverette in the upcoming May election.

om peace namaste

lucy brook
nehalem resident

Mary’s statement:
The Tillamook County Transportation District was formed in 1997. Its mission was, and is, to provide public transportation throughout the county and it has done an amazing job. It started with no funding, two borrowed buses and limited routes. Since then, over a million passengers have ridden The Wave throughout our county and into neighboring counties. Trips that were once impossible without a vehicle, like doctor visits, shopping, visiting family and friends and going to work or school are now taken every day, seven days a week, by Wave riders. This is a wonderful accomplishment and one that everyone in the county can rely on and be proud of. But, we can, and need to do more. 

I have chatted with riders of The Wave and I have learned that the ease of local public transport has yet to be achieved. Riders are limited by routes, infrequent buses, long waits for connections, complicated scheduling that may demand multiple days in advance to schedule, areas not served, and costs.

I see a future for our public transportation system in which every member of our community can travel seamlessly, at a moment’s notice, and at an affordable price. I see daily commuters to work and school who won’t have long wait times and can be home in time for dinner. I see solutions for tourists that may curb traffic congestion during peak season, and much more. However, achieving these goals means getting into the details of demand, connections, frequency of current ridership and making changes based on data.

I’m ready to sit down with riders to assess their wants and needs; then talk with service providers, government programs, grant providers, and others to learn the issues and develop solutions, find the funds, and make the goal of smooth, easy travel a reality for anyone in Tillamook County.


My name is Mary Leverette. I have had an almost 30-year career in government service, both for the State of Oregon and the City of Portland. I supervised both projects and staff. I have a Master’s Degree in Psychology and I am a dedicated volunteer. For the second year, I am organizing the Wheeler Clean-up Day; I write a column on birds for the Lower Nehalem Community Trust; and, most importantly, I was a Hospice Volunteer for 14-plus years. I am organized, positive and practical. I am retired and have the time, energy and experience to serve. I am seeking a position on the County Transportation District because I am committed to serving my community.

Please feel free to contact me at 
LeveretteForTCTD@gmail.com or 503.449.8445.
I look forward to meeting you soon. Thank you again for your support. I need all of the help I can get.

Kind Regards.

Mary

Submitted By: arcadialandscaping@hotmail.com – Click to email about this post

Arcadia Organic Gardening in Cannon Beach is hiring. Feel free to call for job description. Competitive wage, flexible hours, bonuses and paid vacation. 503-440-1491

Submitted By: ben.killen.rosenberg@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Posting on behalf of Kim Rosenberg loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com

Fresh Starts and Second Chances

I heard from so many folks after my last post and I want to thank you all for sending out the love. Something that kept coming up in your kind responses was my bravery and courage.

But kids, I’m not brave and I’m not courageous—not now and not back then. I’m afraid of driving on the freeway, flying in planes, bears (if I’m camping), those big spiders that show up in my bathroom, deep water, high places, dark corners….I could go on.

So it wasn’t that I was brave when I left. It was that I recognized I had no control of the situation. I couldn’t control it because I couldn’t change him. I could only control me. I could only change my own actions.

That sounds self-evident but it wasn’t. And while that time in my life is long over, I don’t regret those years at all. I learned so much and so many good things came from it and still do.

In my past life, I was a believer in never giving up or quitting on anything or anyone so I’ve stayed too long at the fair in all kinds of situations. I know I’m not alone.

I think part of why we stay in bad relationships, bad jobs, bad anything has to do with what we believe about quitting; even quitting something that’s harmful to us.

We don’t want to think of ourselves as quitters. The word itself has such negative connotations maybe because we’ve watched too many made for TV movies where the hero or heroine perseveres through a tough situation and gets what they were after. So what does it say about us when we quit something? What do we believe about quitting then?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for tenacity and perseverance. I’m all for sticking with the promises we make to ourselves about our own behavior. I’m all for doing hard things that challenge us to be who we want to be in the world. I’m all for showing up for the people, places and things that matter. But not at the expense of my physical or mental health or safety. Not anymore. Not ever again.

Sometimes that means walking away from a situation or a relationship that I can’t change or control because I can’t change or control other people. I am only the boss of me. I get into trouble when I start thinking otherwise.

But as the boss of me, I’m in charge of what I’m doing with my life and who and what I’m spending my time with and on. I’m also in charge of my thoughts, actions and perceptions. I’m not always a good boss. In fact, sometimes, I kind of suck. I take on something I can’t handle; I fail to say no; I’m super stubborn but because I’m in charge I can do it different tomorrow. I can listen to my boss self and I can respond to the world as it is, not as I wish it would be.

They say nothing changes if nothing changes. Sometimes we have to let go of one thing to get to the next place in our lives. I don’t think of that as quitting; I think of it as the acceptance of reality.

If we’re lucky enough to wake up in the morning we have the chance to make different choices about how to live in this world.

They say if you keep on doing what you’ve always done you’ll keep on getting what you always got. It might be a small thing you change but that small thing might change your whole life in amazing and unexpected ways.

Kim Rosenberg loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com

Submitted By: cfnern@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

An informed voter hopes to have good information about a candidate’s background and policy positions. Right, left, or center on the political spectrum, voters deserve to know the qualifications, and the institutional goals the candidate has for the office sought.

So what are we to make of a candidate running for 4 distinctly different board positions in Tillamook County? Teah Laviolette will be on the May 16 ballot for board positions for our Transportation, Health, Community College, and Recreation districts Any one of those would require a lot of time and energy, and hopefully a candidate brings a genuine interest to the job.

Is that possible with 4 different positions? I don’t think so. Is Ms. Laviolette naive? I don’t think so. But I do think she owes Tillamook County voters an explanation of the thinking behind this scattershot strategy. What’s the agenda behind this odd approach?

It’s worth mentioning that in March the NCRD and Transportation District Boards met at the exact same time with important decisions to be made. That’s not workable for one person. Which position would be resigned when the workload is too much?

Ms. Laviolette says she wants transparent and honest discussions. Ok – what’s good for the boards is good for the candidate.

Craig Nern
Neahkahnie

Submitted By: jettkeyser@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Always reminded…A Sangha is a Barn Raising.
It is something we do to nourish community and support each other…recognizing and deepening our connection.

Each week, we gather at St Catherine’s Sanctuary next to The Hope Chest near the Shell Station on 101…

between Nehalem and Manzanita. Wednesdays at 6 p.m.

Thanks to Janet for her beautiful yoga and teaching this coming Wednesday…

All are welcome…Always free on principle.

Dogwood days…

Submitted By: abarker62@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I urge all my neighbors in North Tillamook County to vote in the May 16 election and re-elect Marc C. Johnson to his position on the Nehalem Bay Health District.

One of my first memories of Marc was seeing him out in the streets of Manzanita wearing a fluorescent vest on October 14, 2016, assisting residents and first responders in the immediate aftermath of the devastating tornado that hit that morning. He jumped into his role on the Manzanita Community Emergency Response Team without hesitation, and he has been a strong supporter of the Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay for years.

Not only is Marc a dedicated public servant, but he is also a smart leader who knows how to bring together people, resources, and organizations for the greater good of our community. I am a volunteer with the Hoffman Center for the Arts, where Marc served on the Board for a number of years. At the same time, he was also President of the North Tillamook County Library Friends. He acted in a unique capacity as liaison between the two non-profits, leveraging their resources and common interests for mutual benefit.

He has shown these same skills in his position on the Nehalem Bay Health District, bringing together many players to create a funding strategy to strengthen the Nehalem Valley Care Center in Wheeler. He helped to envision a plan that with both improve health care services for the region and provide housing for essential health care workers. His strategy included obtaining Federal dollars with the help of Senators Merkley and Wyden, as well as State funding with the help of Rep. Javadi and Sen. Weber.

We are lucky to have this man working for our community! Please join me in supporting Marc in the May 16 election.

Andy Barker
Manzanita, Oregon

Submitted By: tevisdiii@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

A QUICK RESPONSE TO “ WINS FOR DEMOCRACY”

I’m no more a fan or supporter of president Trump than I am of President Biden. In my opinion we scraped the bottom of the political barrel and these two came up, which to me is a very sad reflection on the American people but after a long line of poor leaders, both democrat AND republicans, it’s what we should expect. If anyone thinks Biden and his family are less corrupt than Trump’s then they are deluding themselves. Creepy Joe has lied, plagiarized, and defrauded his way to the default position he now finds himself in and has abused women all along the way, just like Trump. The only positive historical note I can attach to Trumps time in office is that he did not start any new wars. Almost all previous presidents back to Eisenhower either started wars, military conflicts or rode at the head of the Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Complex to trumpet and continue bloody exploits. I’ll post again the article explaining why and how America has bled itself to the point where most of the world is watching this media circus and not thinking it is a good day for democracy. It is a distraction like a wrestling match in the mud and the media is blasting it out as a colossal battle of justice over corruption.

The ship of state has been allowed to run itself onto the rocks these past seventy years while everyone from second deck on down has been fighting about how to arrange the deck chairs and what music the bands should play. Instead of striving to be a nation that other nations look up to as wise and prudent, good stewards of our natural resources and making sure the people are fed, housed, healed and educated, we have squandered it on actions of empire building. Almost eight hundred U.S. military bases scattered around our world are not protecting anything but the business of war. Go ahead, cut yourself eight hundred times, small cuts, and a few big ones like Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and see how long you stand.

MILITARY SPENDING, AGAIN

www.sott.net/article/478662-Where-the-1-3-trillion-per-year-US-Military-budget-goes

This is a slightly different take on our state of affairs. Regardless of ones opinion of his content, one can read this from a purely literary view and applaud James Howard Kunstler for the master wordsmith he is.

www.sott.net/article/478990-Hows-that-war-going

Submitted By: babbles@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

This below is Michael Moore’s 4/5/23 message to his readers. Usually these messages come every week or two. Now we have had two very close together relating to the charges that Donald Trump faces. I am posting these on BBQ in hopes that some people who have not yet recognized him for the danger to democracy that he is, who have not yet recognized him for his criminal actions violating the American people for his criminal actions perpetrated over decades in behalf of his own private gain, that these people will now recognize all that he is and the evil that he represents.

Michael Moore is a brilliant writer and interviewer, always working for the democratic rights of ordinary Americans like all of us here in Tillamook County.

Lucy Brook
Nehalem resident

From: Michael Moore <michaelmoore@substack.com>
Subject: Dear Criminal Defendant #4913961R
Date: April 5, 2023 at 5:54:29 PM PDT
To: babbles@nehalemtel.net

Dear Criminal Defendant #4913961R:

Thank you for showing up without incident yesterday for your arrest and arraignment. You appeared somewhat bewildered as to why you were there. As this is only the first of a number of criminal charges and arraignments for you that will follow from other prosecutors, I think it’s only fair that I give you the lay of the land as to what’s ahead and why this is happening.

First — and I don’t know why no one has told you this — but your assessment is correct: We ARE out to get you and bring you to Justice. You tried to illegally overturn the election and overthrow the government. You were refusing to give up your seat in the Oval Office and decided to stage a coup. It’s that simple. And now the vast majority of the country wants a legal way to stop you from causing any further destruction. And truthfully, we don’t really care how we get there. As long as it’s honest and legal, we the people are going to throw whatever available book we have at you. Somebody should tell you this. I just did.

Have you read the 34 felony count indictment and its “Statement of Facts” against you? I have. Wow — I mean, it’s stunning in its brilliance and construction. It puts you in a real choke-hold and yet allows the prosecution even more room in the coming months to crush you even further. I’m thinking you must have some sense of this and your impending doom.

The prosecutor you’re up against, Alvin Bragg — the one you call “an animal” and “a criminal” — he’s been a prosecutor for nearly 20 years. He’s helped put hundreds of criminals like you away. I know, I know — he’s Black. Just like those five innocent teenagers in Central Park that you tried to get a jury to send to the electric chair. Just like the thousands of families you and your father refused to rent your apartments to for decades until the federal government stopped you. Yes, that kind of Black! Yes, karma does suck! Yes, that was your father in the KKK parade way back in the day. Now you’ve got three Black prosecutors — the Manhattan D.A., the New York State Attorney General and the Fulton County, GA, prosecutor — all coming after you. Revenge for sins against them and all who look like them? I hope so! But, seriously, Black America has never really made us truly pay for their suffering, either the cruelty meted out to their ancestors by our ancestors, or the hand they themselves have been dealt by a society that still seems comfortable with the average white family in 2023 having a net worth 8 times that of the average Black family.

No, Defendant #4913961R, these Black prosecutors, whom you hurl racist insults at — including the one where you, New York’s leading racist, called them “racists(!)” — they are serious professionals who are just doing the job the majority of voters sent them to do. One of those jobs is to send you finally to prison.

All 34 charges against you are felonies. You conspired with others to silence people who had information the voters might possibly like to know before they cast their vote. You only won because of the 77,000 votes you got in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. How many would have changed their minds if they knew certain things about you? Your hush money payments went to at least three individuals, all with the intent of keeping the public in the dark in order to throw the election your way. And to cover it up, you told your lawyer, Michael Cohen, to take out a “home equity loan” for himself to pay off these individuals so it wouldn’t look like you had anything to do with it! What an idiot!

So, Defendant #4913961R, do you now understand why this is happening to you? And why we don’t care whatever the reason is they’ll be sending you to Sing Sing soon?

You attempted to blow up our democracy.

You led a violent uprising in which people died.

You tried to overthrow a presidential election, an election that you brutally lost.

You are on tape privately bullying the Georgia Secretary of State to illegally stuff the ballot box with 11,780 votes for you that did not exist.

Then You got 147 Republican members in Congress to vote to steal the election for you! Is there a greater act of treason in a Democracy than the outright theft of an election and thus the overthrow of the elected government?

You hate this country and what it stands for.

And the vast majority of us know it. That’s why we tossed you to the curb in 2020 and then put you on a garbage barge to Florida. You are correct to assume we and the prosecutors we elect will charge you and arrest you for ANY legal reason we can find.

Last night, in your continuing crusade to incite violence, you and your son posted a photo of the Judge’s daughter online. It was your way of threatening him with violence. You know it will take only one of your psychopathic supporters to commit a heinous act. Do you have any idea what tens of millions of American parents would do to you if you did anything to threaten their child’s life?

You’re upset because you think we’re prosecuting you because of a porn star? HAHAHA!

Look, we’d arrest you for anything we legally could — littering, parking tickets, jaywalking, you name it.

Anything to stop you from staging another coup. Anything that would stop you from endangering the life of that Judge’s daughter. Anything we can legally do to stop you, we will. You remember Al Capone. They could never get him on the murderous crime organization he ran. So they got him for lying on his income taxes. Nobody cared. The public wanted him put away by any legal means necessary. We’re Al Caponing you, Don.

Your crime spree, which began in 1973, is coming to an end.

Deal with it. Pack a toothbrush.

Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Do you recall the article in the Atlantic written by Emily Oster? “Lets Declare A Pandemic Amnesty” after all she says- “we didn’t know!”
I didn’t read the article then, but there were a lot of comments about it on the Internet. Hell NO! No Amnesty – was the response to the article- because the cost was way too high. At the opening of the Oregon legislative session – either this year or last year – someone spoke of the damaging residue due to the response to Cxxxd. Three or four Oregon teenagers committed suicide. School kids lost ground in their education. Babies no longer reach developmental milestones. Child abuse went up -people lost their jobs, their businesses, their livelihood – Those people who “knew” would not get the youknowhat, lots of discrimination against those that wouldn’t get the youknowhat – In one little town here- Where people are considered to have more education than in the rest of the little towns around here, was it an echo, a replay, of what happened to a group of people in WWII, singled out because they were different? They are “others”, let’s hate them – and a new term “ virtue signaling” was rampant in the hearts and minds of many people both here and abroad. People wanted other people to show their “youknowhat card” in order to partake in anything social. And one local medical clinic announced that those who “knew” would have to be seen in the parking lot.!!!
This author says in her article – “lets focus on the future,” after all, she says “We Didn’t know”. And there it is – WE DIDN’T KNOW! But my question is, Why didn’t “we” know? This author is well educated, The well educated are supposed to have critical thinking skills. BUT “WE” DIDN’T KNOW? How is that possible.There are a whole lot of people with just basic eduction that knew! People all over the place knew! They were censored but we still got to read them. The question is Why didn’t you know? The answer is – you didn’t want to know, and you don’t want to know now. Let’s just forget about it. Just like the some people didn’t want to remember what happened in WWII.

Submitted By: babbles@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

To readers in BBQ-land,

I don’t know how many of you out there have heard of Heather Cox Richardson. She is a political historian who writes a daily free publication “Letters from an American.” Anyone can sign up for a free subscription to these daily newsletters.

i have copied and pasted the 4/4/23 letter below. This is an historic day for democracy in America and across the world. Here are the highlights from todays Letter, partly in my words and partly exerpted from the letter.

1) Finland has officially joined the United Nations.

2) Wisconsin voters elected into office a Wisconsin supreme into office who is against heavy gerrymandering, who supports abortion rights, and who supports fair voting rules. This is a huge win for democracy in a state where right-wing hegemony has been using its power to rip away the rights of the people, where elections have been rigged at a state level making it impossible to have free and fair elections. Wisconsin citizens are rising up against abortion bans, climate denial, gun idolatry, anti-democratic behavior and extremism.

3) We often read of people marching for whatever cause is important to them. We pay lesser or greater attention to these marches. This particular march in Tennessee strikes deep into my heart and soul. In the aftermath of yet another school shooting, 7000 Tennessee schoolchildren marched to the state capitol to demand gun safety legislation. That children should organize themselves into marching because they are afraid for their lives is a telling demonstration of the need to limit high-powered assault weapons.

4) Yesterday former president Donald Trump was arraigned in Manhattan, New York, on 34 (thirty-four) felony counts of falsifying business records. How disgraceful that a man who held the highest office in America is in reality, behind-the-scenes, no better than a common crook. Actually, in my mind he is lower, more debased, than a common crook, because he has perpetrated schemes against democracy across America and against the well-being of millions of American citizens.

The people of the United States are rising up and fighting back against the surge of right-wing extremism that has been sweeping across our country, not with weaponry and violence, but rather with the power of democratic principles and the power of our constitutional rights.

Lucy Brook
Nehalem resident

Begin forwarded message:

From: Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American <heathercoxrichardson@substack.com>
Subject: April 4, 2023 (Tuesday)

To: babbles@nehalemtel.net
Reply-To: Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American

April 4, 2023 (Tuesday)
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
There are two huge stories afield tonight. First, Finland has officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Finland opted for neutrality after the organization of NATO in 1949 to stand against the expansion of the Soviet Union, but Russia’s invasion of non-NATO country Ukraine last year sparked concern in a country that shares an 832-mile border with Russia. NATO members share an ironclad security guarantee among them, agreeing to come to each other’s aid if any of them is attacked.

“The era of nonalignment in our history has come to an end—a new era begins,” Finland’s president Sauli Niinistö said.

The second huge story is domestic. Today, Wisconsin voters elected Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by a ten-point margin. Her opponent, Dan Kelly, supported the heavily gerrymandered district maps in the state and was supported by antiabortion groups. Protasiewicz has called those maps, which make it virtually impossible for Democrats to win control of the assembly, “rigged” and supports abortion rights. Her election switches the political orientation of the court for the first time in 15 years.

This court will likely take up cases relating to the state’s abortion ban, its extreme gerrymandering, and its voting rules for the 2024 presidential election. Far-right activist Ali Alexander, who was deeply involved in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, tweeted: “We just lost the Wisconsin Supreme Court. I do not see a path to 270 in 2024.”

Wisconsin Democratic chair Ben Wikler tweeted: “This isn’t a prediction. It isn’t a hint. It’s just a note. And my note is, this election was a release valve for twelve years of Democratic rage in Wisconsin about Republicans rigging our state and smashing our democracy—and then using that power to rip away our rights.”

Across the state, Republican numbers slumped. Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen noted: “Republicans are losing across the country, even in historically red areas—Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin. The abortion bans, climate denial, gun idolatry, anti-democratic behavior and extremism has lost them entire generations of Americans.”

That disaffection was on display in Tennessee, where 7,000 schoolchildren marched to the Capitol yesterday to demand gun safety legislation after a school shooting killed six people last week. Republican lawmakers have taken steps to expel three Democratic representatives who used a bullhorn on the floor of the House to help lead the protest.

Representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson led chants from the House floor. Their Democratic colleagues support them, but their Republican colleagues have stripped them of their committee assignments and filed resolutions declaring that the three Democrats engaged in “disorderly behavior” and “knowingly and intentionally” brought “dishonor to the House of Representatives.” The House will vote on the resolutions Thursday. Kimberlee Kruesi of the Associated Press reports that only two House members have been expelled since the Civil War.

In other news today, the former president, Donald Trump, was arraigned in Manhattan on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In order to quash damaging stories before the 2016 election, the charges allege, he paid a doorman who claimed to know about an out-of-wedlock child (a story apparently proved incorrect) and two women to keep them quiet about affairs. The payments were structured to hide them. This violated both election law and falsified business records, as well as mischaracterizing the payments for tax purposes.

There were far more Trump opponents than supporters in the crowd outside the courthouse, and while Trump-allied representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and George Santos (R-NY) were there, other Republican lawmakers steered clear.

While Trump seemed subdued and angry in the courtroom, where he pleaded not guilty, his tone had changed markedly by tonight. Back at Mar-a-Lago and surrounded by supporters, he launched into a half-hour speech tonight rehashing his favorite complaints.

Last week, as he waited for indictment, Trump circulated on social media a picture of himself with a baseball bat next to a picture of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. This morning, his son, Don Jr., posted on social media a picture of the daughter of the judge presiding over the case. In court today Judge Juan Merchan asked the former president to “refrain from making comments or engaging in conduct that has the potential to incite violence, create civil unrest, or jeopardize the safety or well-being of any individuals” and suggested that, having made that warning, if he had to revisit it he would “take a closer look at it.” Nonetheless, tonight Trump went after those prosecutors pursuing cases against him.

Mark Barabak of the Los Angeles Times noted the “stark contrast between the humbled Trump facing justice Tuesday and the swaggering Trump—all toughness, cunning and hyper-masculinity—that he prefers to project.”

Also today, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled that several of Trump’s top aides must testify before the grand jury investigating the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

In his statement welcoming Finland to NATO today, President Joe Biden noted that the United States and 11 other nations came together to sign the original NATO declaration 74 years ago today: April 4, 1949. On that day, President Harry S. Truman said, “If there is anything inevitable in the future, it is the will of the people of the world for freedom and for peace.”

At the end of the night, the Wisconsin Democratic Party released a statement congratulating Justice-elect Protasiewicz on her victory. “The resurrection of democracy and freedom in Wisconsin has begun,” it read.

“On paper, this campaign may have lasted only a few months. But tonight’s victory is the result of years of unglamorous work by volunteers, activists, union members, and organizers across our state who knocked doors, made phone calls, chipped in, and never lost the faith that a better future was possible—even when hope seemed all but lost. Tonight is a testament to the power of never giving up. And it’s a testament to the whirlwind that the foes of democracy—in Wisconsin, and in America—can expect to reap.

“While we may have won tonight, we know that the threat posed to our freedoms and our democracy by MAGA extremism continues. And that’s why we will never stop organizing. We will use this moment as a springboard into the long work ahead—to build a multiracial democracy in which all of us, no matter our gender or gender identity, our generation or the geography in which we live, has a voice, has dignity, and has the power that is supposed to be the birthright of all American citizens.”

Submitted By: ben.killen.rosenberg@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Posting on behalf of Kim Rosenberg loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com

Have Hope

I don’t usually write much about my personal life, but I went to a meeting the other day, and somebody I know asked about my health. They know I have a brain injury—the result of a long ago ex-husband—but because I look fine and mostly live my life, it’s not obvious that I struggle in a bunch of ways that aren’t always visible to other people.

In Why Can’t I See Straight? an article in the March 6, 2022 New York Times Magazine, Christina Hillstrom writes, “Research shows that victims of domestic violence sustain head trauma more often than football players—hinting at a hidden epidemic of brain injury in women.”

I used to not tell anyone this stuff because there’s a lot of judgment about living with someone who hurts you. There’s also judgment when you have a hidden disability that involves your brain. When people only see you on good days, they might not understand that there are bad days and what that might look like.

After I was diagnosed, I learned that women make up a significant percentage of people living with traumatic brain injuries, and many aren’t diagnosed until years after the fact, like I was. While domestic violence happens to both men and women, women make up the majority of victims and don’t always report when their partner put their head through sheet rock or used their body like a punching bag or choked them until they passed out.

It takes most people a bunch of times to leave a violent relationship for good, for all kinds of reasons—no place to go, no money to get there, and the very real fear that you might be murdered.

But part of the reason women stay is the head injury itself. If you’ve ever had a concussion, you know there’s a kind of forgetting that happens. Repeated concussions over years messes you up. In the same NYT’s article Catherine Fortier, the deputy director of TRASK, a Veteran’s Affairs research program, is quoted saying, “The TBIs that occurred in those violent relationships, that occurred in a psychologically traumatic context, showed more pronounced changes than the TBIs that occurred in a regular civilian-type accident, like a sports injury or motor-vehicle accident.”

Many women don’t go to the hospital or doctor’s office for treatment because that will make everything worse at home. In those fifteen years with my ex, I never once called the police and I never went to the doctor. I just wore a ton of concealer and missed a lot of work.

How I got out alive is a miracle to me. It was the hardest, scariest thing I’ve ever had to do, and I’m lucky to be alive. Not everyone survives the leaving. Not everyone gets a do-over.

April is National Month of Hope. Hope is the pilot light that keeps your stove lit—it’s the belief deep in your center that tells you things will work out even when—especially when—it seems sure they won’t. You found a lump, you got laid off, your loved one died, the person you live with hit you. In other words, things fell apart.

Sometimes the pilot light goes out, and hope is lost. You’re left in the cold and the dark. I’ve been in that place, and it’s been hope that saved me—unexpected, surprising hope.

Hope doesn’t mean denying reality and pretending everything is fine when it clearly is not. That kind of hope is more like wishing.

Hope isn’t a wish; hope requires action. It’s the soul’s muscle.

I’d been working that muscle for about a year before I left with the help of a very good friend. Nobody leaves a situation like that without some kind of support, and Julie was mine. She didn’t judge me for staying, and she didn’t hate on my ex. She told me that love shouldn’t leave marks. She told me that when I was ready, I’d be able to leave. She told me that my life was a gift I forgot to open but it was waiting for me.

And then one day in July of 1991, I was sitting on the couch in another crappy rental watching Oprah after work—well, not really watching Oprah. I was waiting for my ex to come home from the bar with what was left of his paycheck. He’d be drunk and wired—a combination like rocket fuel that kept him up for hours while operating in a blackout. The payday before he’d pushed me down a flight of stairs, and I still had some bruises.

That day sitting on the couch with the sun shining through the windows, I saw my life in all its messed up reality. I knew exactly what would happen if I stayed and there was no way I could control it. It was nothing personal. I could be anybody and he’d be doing what he did. It was his addiction to substances and my addiction to him that kept us spinning. That was the day when I understood that this would be the rest of my life until I died. And he might be the person to kill me.

Or I could do something different. Hope whispered, TRY and I listened for a change.

When he came home wasted and threatened me that day, I got up off the couch and left. I walked away from everything I owned, and I didn’t go back. I left my job, my belongings, my home, everything. I took my life and started over. It didn’t get easier for years.

If someone would’ve told me then that I’d be living the life I live now, I wouldn’t have believed them. Yet, here I am.

If you or someone you love is experiencing violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788

In Tillamook contact Tides of Change 503-842-9486

Kim Rosenberg loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com

Submitted By: conniegreenwga@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Community Colleges Boards are dedicated.

In 2010 I had the honor to come to Tillamook Bay Community College (TBCC) and work alongside the community, education partners, the TBCC board, faculty, staff, and students to ensure the college was accredited. What an honor! When I retired as President in 2017, TBCC was the smallest community college, but we had broad community support from businesses to education partners to non-profits. We had a stable budget, and we were ready to grow as the community needed. The College Board was and is accountable, representative of many viewpoints as well as representing all the communities in the county. They current board members are dedicated that all students would not only have access but support to succeed. They have led well.
Today TBCC serves more students than Oregon Coast. The college has continued to grow and serve the community. The College Board, President and faculty and staff are committed to serve all students. The seven Board members come from a wide background and are all serving to ensure that the resources are widely used, that all students have access and can persist and complete. Tillamook County has been well served by the TBCC Board that exemplifies what a “community” college board need to be: “accountable to their communities for the success of their students, their ability to meet local needs, and the financial integrity of their colleges”. They have made wise decisions with resources; they have added career technical programs and transfer options. They have listened to employers to meet the local workforce needs.
Please re-elect your college board members that have served and are serving you well. They are Andrea Goss, Mary Jones, Betsy McMahon, Shannon Hoff and Mary Faith Bell. I encourage Tillamook voters to keep your community college board leadership exemplifying what is needed in today’s economic times: knowledgeable, flexible and serving all potential students.

Connie Green, President Emertius

Submitted By: Linda.Kozlowski@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Occasionally our community is lucky enough to have a great leader in a critical position ready and able to make innovative and positive change. We have that leader in Marc Johnson. He stepped into the Board of the Nehalem Bay Health District when it was struggling to find its direction. Marc, as Board Chair along with an excellent Board, led the first strategic planning process following extensive community outreach. That strategy is focused on providing North County with an accessible critically needed healthcare option!

The strategic plan also created a process that begins to address critical housing needs for health care and other essential workers, purchased property on Hwy 101, and expanding the facility, making it easily accessible by the community

Marc has developed a comprehensive funding strategy, including a bond measure on the May ballot (Vote YES!), for the new health center, as well as the renovation and modernization of the Nehalem Valley Care Center in Wheeler, our region’s only skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility.

He was instrumental in getting 3 million in federal funding with Senator Merkley and Wyden’s support.
Linda Kozlowski
Marc is a collaborative leader and gets things done! We need Marc Johnson on the Nehalem Bay Health District Board.

Vote for positive, innovative change. Vote Marc Johnson!!

Linda Kozlowski
484 Ocean Avenue
Manzanita

Submitted By: sharlaksmith@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

gofund.me/351d94b4

Gathering of the T cells starts next week.
Please donate blood if you are able to.
Thank you everyone for the great support!!!

Submitted By: fredkassab@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I would like to express my support for a YES vote on the Nehalem Bay Health District bond measure in the upcoming election.

As a retired primary care physician, I spent my career caring for families and understand the importance of local, reliable health care and senior care. In our rural community, local health care options are extremely limited, and when they are available at all they often require a 45 to 60 minute drive to Tillamook, Seaside or Astoria. Time and time again I’ve spoken to neighbors who have lost their local care, are unable to find a primary care provider, or are forced to drive to the Portland area for routine primary care and specialty care alike.

The dream of retiring on the north Oregon Coast is often dashed when health challenges force residents to relocate to a larger city for primary, specialty or assisted care. Two senior care facilities were lost last year and a new center with trained staff is critical for local residents who now have no local options for assisted care.

In addition, the year-round population as well as median age in north Tillamook county is increasing, and seniors require increasing health care services. Renovation of the existing health center, pharmacy and Nehalem Valley Care Center is crucial to providing this much needed care now and in the future. The current buildings are old and inadequate for quality health care as well as safe and up-to-date working conditions for staff.

Finally, a YES vote will also contribute to the much-needed lack of affordable workforce housing for health care workers in the area, as the bond issue will facilitate collaboration with a non-profit or other housing developer for construction of this type of housing.

Please join me in voting YES to preserve and improve quality health care for everyone of all ages in our community.

Fred Kassab, MD (retired)
Manzanita, OR

Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

The title of my last post was on the cover of a book I just purchased. The title of the book is “I Never Thought of it That way” by Monica Guzman
I have not read the book yet but I talked to a man in South County – who told me about the book – and he is trying to get a local group together to facilitate dialog between the differences – and the similarities between us.

This group is called Braver Angels!! Check it out on the internet. Can we really have decent conversations – I think so – we used to. I believe it is the media and censorship “misinformation” that has caused most of us to choose “sides” when we really don’t need to do that at all.

Submitted By: kpurdom@me.com – Click to email about this post

To the person who dumped my yard sale juicer in pieces on my driveway. At some point in the night, your note was illegible due to it all sitting in the rain all night long. (by the way, my neighbors have cameras that span our street.)
From what I was able to read of your note, saying it did not work, it’s clearly obvious you used it, and it worked, by the pulp residue you left on the parts.
I was very clear the juicer worked well on all vegetables and fruits, as well as disclosed the only negative in my experience, was that I felt it was tedious to clean.
You bought it, you used it and you dumped it in pieces on my driveway. There is no refund.

Acting respectful by knocking on my door and asking for a return would have provided a far better outcome.

Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

It is interesting how we have become divided recently to the point that friends and families have stopped talking to each other – that is exactly the point (divided we fall) of the MSM today which includes radio, TV ,magazines, newspapers etc. etc.and other media that divides us and them. Many people see that this is destructive for our country. (it sure is) And some have tried to do something about it.

One person in Tillamook County is trying to start a chapter here, with a web site, now called Braver Angels. In 2020, the name was changed to Braver Angels partly to settle a trademark dispute and also to pay homage to the bravery required to have respectful conversation outside our preferred silo of opinion. Jim Heffernan living in South County, became enamored of Braver Angels when he read Monica Guzman’s book, “I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times” in 2021. Monica is a very liberal Hispanic Seattle journalist who was troubled when conversations with her conservative immigrant parents often ended in tears because of their political differences.

With clear and penetrating logic, she outlines what causes our distress and offers a way out of it. The cause is distilled down to the acronym SOS. It’s very apt that it matches the classic distress signal, but what it stands for is Sorting, Othering, and Siloing. Sorting happens when we separate ourselves into groups based on politics or race.
Othering happens we react to sorting by identifying people as either “us” or “them” -other.
Siloing happens when we seek our conversation and news in silos, the same sources, that don’t ask us to stray from our beliefs. Sorting, Othering, and Siloing — none of them are good for us or for the nation.

Read more at braverangels.org/ If you would like Mr. Heffernans e-mail address – e-mail me dixiegainer@gmail.com and ask for it.